When Animals Take the Field: Trespassing Creatures Cause Chaos at Sports Events

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A little dog (not the one in the photo) ran onto the course of Tour de France on Sunday and narrowly avoided being run over by a pack of cyclists.

Updated at 8:02 PM EDT on Tuesday, Jul 2, 2013

A tiny dog nearly caused a massive crash at the Tour de France this weekend, but it wasn't the first time an animal threatened to wreak havoc on a sports spectacle.

A few miles from the finish line of the bicycle race's second stage Sunday in Corsica, the little dog can be seen in viral video dashing away from its owner and onto the pavement.

The owner sprinted onto the course to grab his pet, but the startled animal ran back into the path with the chasing pack of cyclists fast approaching.

Luckily, the little dog ran back to the other side of the street — and narrowly escaped being run over by a cluster of cyclists.

Watch how the dog made its last-second escape:

Such high-profile near-misses with animal at sports events aren't unusual, even at the Tour de France. Birds have been known to take a fancy to baseball games, while dogs have also shown their moves on the soccer pitch. Take a look at other past animal interruptions that have upstaged the main event.

Dog causes bicycle crash: A dog showed up on the course of the 2007 Tour de France out of nowhere and caused two cyclists to crash on the course.

Cows at Tour de France: A herd of cows trotted onto the road where the cyclists were riding during a warm-up leg of the 2011 Tour.

Dog interrupts soccer game: A dog invaded a soccer field in Turkey, and the attempts to take it off the field turned into a belly massage session.

Cat runs onto soccer field: A cat sprinted onto a soccer field during a soccer match in the Netherlands in April and was even eventually tracked down and taken away before half-time.

Pine marten invades football game: A Swiss soccer match was thrown into chaos when the pitch was invaded by a small, feisty pine marten — similar to a weasel — that charged onto the field and bit one of the players.

Bird hit by baseball: Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson threw a fastball that struck and killed a flying dove during a spring training game against the San Francisco Giants in 2001.

Baseball fells stray seagull: Another infamous bird-killing incident: Dave Winfeld, then a New York Yankee, accidentally killed a seagull by throwing a ball while warming up in Toronto in 1983.

Squirrel takes over baseball game: A squirrel interrupted a Chicago White Sox game and had a lot of fun playing hide-and-seek with the players before it was taken off the field.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the game pictured in the last video clip as a college basketball game. It is a Chicago White Sox game.